Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, his love endures forever (Psalm 136:1)

[Editor’s note: This week, we welcome Bella Segnere to our CD writing team!  Bella is a high-school sophomore at Cary Christian School, and active in our Pittsboro campus.  It’s great to welcome her voice – and do take a minute to thank and encourage her when her first CD appears tomorrow by using the Comment feature at the bottom of her piece!]

It’s great to be back together as Connect Devotional writers and readers!  

This week, we’ll focus on the theme of gratitude, using Psalm 136 as our guide.    This will overlap with our current We Are Family theme and then, at the end of this week, we’ll pivot to our December theme, Home for Christmas.

Gratitude is “the most important thing” because the practice of gratitude is the primary way we open ourselves to the fundamental truth that God fashioned us to be dependent creatures.  We all need things that we cannot generate all by ourselves, everything from air and water and food, to family, friendship and love, to well-ordered communities, and so much else.

And, if we’re honest, many if not most all of the good things we enjoy have come to us as gifts.  We like to think that we have earned and deserved the good that we enjoy, but the truth is that the most important aspects of our lives, the things we most treasure and value, have come to us as gifts, starting with the gift that we even exist in the first place!

And, as we have been taught since childhood, the most important thing to do when we have received a gift is to say “Thank you!”

The structure of Psalm 136 is obvious: we are called to give thanks to, and to give thanks for.  And the ground of our gratitude is the same: God’s steadfast love endures forever.  This psalm is built upon one of the key words of the entire Old Testament: hesed, which our Bibles (inadequately) translate as mercy or steadfast love.  Hesed cannot be neatly translated into an English word or two.  It carries connotations of covenant faithfulness, of a freely chosen commitment and a consistent loving concern that are rooted in who God is and not in our behavior or deserving.

Over and over, as we read this psalm, we repeat and remind ourselves: “God’s hesed is forever, his hesed is forever.”  Our gratitude ultimately can’t be grounded in our circumstances; this psalm reminds us of our former slavery, of the opposition of powerful opponents, of our “low estate.”  It may be easy to be grateful when all is well (and grateful we should be when that is our portion), but it is essential to learn the ways of gratitude when our way and circumstances are hard.  Otherwise, we will collapse into cynicism, bitterness, and a flat, hopeless resignation.

Gratitude keeps us grounded in the truth that life is fundamentally personal and relational.  Despite current practice, we actually cannot “thank the universe” for anything.  Because the universe cannot supply the necessary response to “Thank you,” which is, “You’re welcome!”

As you spend time listening to Psalm 136, look for the words and phrases that capture your attention in some way.  How could you put those into grateful prayers?